Subway and Train Accidents

When one goes on a subway or train, the law requires the operator to safely transport you to your destination as well as maintain their stations and parking facilities. If the subway operator, such a Metropolitan Transportation Authority or New York City Transportation Authority are negligent in the ownership and operation of subway cars or their stations, they can be held liable to injured riders or pedestrians. An attorney handling these cases must have knowledge of the Transportation Laws as found in Title 49 of the United States Code as well as FELA (Federal Employers Liability Act) and the Federal Transit Administration which covers subways and mass transit. These laws apply to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); Metro North and Long IslandRailroad (LIRR) accidents, NYC subways, Path trains, Amtrak as well as other commuter train accidents. These entities can be liable to injured riders; pedestrians and employees for substandard maintenance of trains; inadequate safety standards; dangerous subway platforms and stations; insufficient training of employees and failure to inspect and maintain stations and train equipment.

Our firm recently handled a case against Metro North and their parking lot maintenance company, LAZ Parking, The client walked off the steps of the Metro North Station and as she was walking on the sidewalk to exit the parking lot, she tripped on a raised sidewalk that had been improperly fixed and landed flat on her face and sustained a fractured nose with surgery. She also had memory problems after the fall. After three years of litigation, the base was settled for $150,000. our firm is presently handing two parking lot cases where failure to remove snow and ice resulted in a fall with injuries. We are also handling a case where the rider was in the trian station and his cane slipped on snow and ice throwing him down the station steps resulted in a fractured jaw, fractured eye orbit and a fractured skull.

All these cases require filing of a Notice of Claim with the proper agency and within 90 days of the accident, If this is NOT done, no lawsuit can be started. Once the Notice of Claim is filed, the subway or train owner conducts a 50-h hearing and 30 days after the hearing, you can start a lawsuit. The MTA, Metro North and the LIRR have investigators who perform independent investigations to collect evidence into the cause of the accident.

An attorney handing these cases must invest substantial money in hiring engineers and accident reconstructionists, obtain witness statements, preserve evidence, ascertain radio logs between the train operator and the dispatchers, look for any possible videotape or recordings of the accident and advise those responsible for the accident and injuries and file a Notice of Claim to preserve your legal rights.

If you are injured in a subway or railroad accident, contact the subway attorney at Dominick J. Robustelli & Associates, PLLC.